Light and Slow-Neutron Diffraction by Nanodiamond-Dispersed Nanocomposite Holographic Gratings

TL;DR

This paper presents the development of nanodiamond-based holographic gratings that effectively manipulate light and slow-neutron beams, demonstrating high refractive index modulation and efficient diffraction at multiple wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces a novel nanodiamond-polymer composite material for holographic gratings with enhanced optical and neutron diffraction properties.

Findings

High refractive index modulation achieved at optical wavelengths

Efficient slow-neutron diffraction demonstrated

Nanodiamond composites enable dual-wavelength beam control

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of nanodiamond in constructing holographic nanoparticle-polymer composite transmission gratings with large saturated refractive index modulation amplitudes at both optical and slow-neutron wavelengths, resulting in efficient control of light and slow-neutron beams. Nanodiamond possesses a high refractive index at optical wavelengths and large coherent and small incoherent scattering cross sections with low absorption at slow-neutron wavelengths. We describe the synthesis of nanodiamond, the preparation of photopolymerizable nanodiamond-polymer composite films, the construction of transmission gratings in nanodiamond-polymer composite films and light optical diffraction experiments. Results of slow-neutron diffraction from such gratings are also presented.